Forming wire into coils and bundles



April 5, 1966 w. MEERT 3,243,981

FORMING WIRE INTO COILS AND BUNDLES Filed Oct. 22, 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 58 Fig. 7

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April 5, 1966 w. MEERT FORMING WIRE INTO COILS AND BUNDLES 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 22, 1965 Inventor WL 22] MzBeI-T y April 5, 1966 w. MEERT 3,243,931

FORMING WIRE INTO COILS AND BUNDLES Filed Oct. 22, 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 I Inventor WI. ZYy Mae/- z April 5, 1966 w. MEERT 3,243,981

FORMING WIRE INTO COILS AND BUNDLES Filed Oct. 22, 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Inventor W Zy Mes f'Z I A l/J.

United States Patent C) 3,243,981 FORMING WIRE INTO COILS AND BUNDLES Willy Meert, Rue de Repos 51, FontainelEveque, Belgium Filed Oct. 22, 1963, Ser. No. 317,945 Claims priority, application Belgium, Nov. 26, 1962, 39,606; Jan. 15, 1963, 39,670 9 Claims. (Cl. 72-438) This invention relates to methods and machines for winding wire into coiled bundles or the like.

In order to be able to wind wire, e.g. a wire coming from a drawing machine, into coiled bundles, winders are employed in which a rotary winding or reeling arm lays the Wire on a stationary winding or reeling plate with a retaining rim or surround, the wire being laid in coils disposed in the direction of the plate axis. If the joint axis of the reeling plate and the reeling arm is vertical, the wire coils formed can drop downwards and a bundle of coiled wire is obtained in which the spool or reel can remain stationary during the formation of the bundle. In known winders of thiskind, the windings produced are of constant diameter which widens or shrinks more or less fortuitously whilst the turns drop on to the spool, i.e. relatively irregular layers are produced, so that the coiling volume is but inadequately used.

The best use of the coiling space is attained if the turns of wire are laid layer by layer, closely adjacent to each other, and alternately from the inside to the outside and from the outside to the inside and so on. In order to form a coil of this kind, the radius or curvature of the turns of wire must vary along each layer from a minimum value corresponding to the inner diameter of the reel up to a maximum value corresponding to the desired maximum diameter of the bundle of coiled wire. To obtain such a coil it is known to drive the reeling arm and the reeling plate separately and in opposite directions, i.e. by means of separate motors, and to fit a roller device on the reeling arm for the take-off or doffing of the vire to be coiled on the reeling plate, and to regulate the speeds of l h motors in such manner in each instance that the us of curvature of the wire run off varies between the In such a mechanism, the radius of curvature is v d merely by varying the ratio between the angular velocities of the reeling plate and of the reeling arm but this can be achieved only with soft annealed wires at low speeds. The ratio between angular velocities is difficult to adjust since the feed velocity of the wire into the winder must be taken into account at the same time, i.e. the sum of the two angular velocities should remain constant. The main object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for obtaining coils of wire in which the aforesaid difficulties are minimised so that even hard wires may be reeled into coiled wire bundles of very great weight at high infeed speed of the wire.

According to the present invention a method is provided of reeling coiled wire bundles in which the coils are each in a plane at right angles to the axis of the bundle and the coils are of continually changing radius alternately increasing and decreasing between maximum and minimum radii, said method comprising passing the wire to the bundle over a number of rollers in a bending device and continually varying the spacing between the rollers to' vary the curvature in the wire coils as they are laid on the bundle. The bending device preferably serves the purpose of laying the wire at the same time. A coiled wire bundling machine for carrying out the said method comprises separately driven coaxially rotatable reeling :and support plates, a wire reeling arm carried by the support plate, an adjustable wire bending device carried by the support plate, and a drive device for continually adice justing the bending device so that the bending device continually varies the radius of curvature of the wire coils formed thereby during rotation of the support plate. The continual adjustment of the bending device automatically adapts the radius of curvature of the wire in each case according to the instantaneously required radius of the turn running off the bending device to the bundle. I

A preferred machine has a simple drive which allows the turns of the coiled wire bundle to be laid with increasing and decreasing radius of curvature, with constant feed velocity of the wire into the winding mechanism. In this apparatus the two drives of the support and reeling plates are coupled so that on the one hand the difference between their angular velocities multiplied by the radius of the reeling plate, and on the other hand the angular velocity of the support plate multiplied by the instantaneous radius of the wire turn running off the reeling plate, always corresponds to the linear infe'ed speed of the wire, and means are provided to vary the angular velocities of the two plates as a function of the adjustment of the bending device to maintain said conditions.

The support late may be rotatably mounted on the reeling plate driving spindle which is coupled to differential gear driving pinions the first of which is rotatably mounted on the spindle and is driven by a first motor at a speed which corresponds to the linear infeed velocity of the wire while the second difierential pinion is driven by a second adjustable motor the rotational speed of which is regulated as a function of the size of the radius of curvature of the turns of wire to be laid, and the support plate is driven by the second motor at half the angular velocity of the second differential pinion.

Only one adjustable motor is necessary in the mechanism namely that which drives the'support plate as well as one of the two driving pinions of the differential gear at variable r.p.m., this variation'occurring synchronously with the adjustment of the bending device. The second motor which drives the second driving pinion of the difterential gear, need not be adjustable unless the winder is intended for different wire infeed velocities. This regulation may however also be performed by appropriate adaptation of the transmission between the motor and the driving pinion. This transmission may if desired-also be of the infinitely variable type. 1

In order that the invention may be more clearly under stood embodiments in accordance therewith will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view partly in cross section of a reeling machine with a schematic illustration of the drive;

FIG. 2 is a cross section of the bending device seen on line IIII of FIG. 3 in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the bending device;

FIG. 4 is a cross section through another form of drive of the reeling plate and of the support plate;

FIG. 5 is a cross section of the bending device shown in FIG. 4 and taken on line V-V in the direction of the arrows; and

PEG. 6 is a side view of the bending device of FIG. 4.

The frame of the machine comprises several and preferably four uprights attached to a baseplate 51 and carrying a bridge 52 which forms the support for the reeling device. Two bearings 53 and 54 are disposed in axial alignment in the bridge 52. In these bearings 21 spindle 55 is rotatably mounted and carrying on its lower extremity a reeling plate 3 of the winder in corotary manner. This plate is in the form of a drawing plate, i.e., it has an annular flange 17 forming the upper edge of the plate 3. As will be herein explained this edge may however be disposed at the bottom of the plate 3 in which case the turns of wire are displaced upwards 3 whereas with the edge as in FIG. 1 the turns of the wire are displaced downwards.

A support plate 12 of the reeling device is rotatably mounted in a bearing 57 on the spindle 55. A reeling arm 5 is attached to' the plate '12 and carries several guide rollers 4 for the wire 58. This wire is fed to the winder over a roller 1, which is rotatably mounted on an arm 59 of the bridge 52, through a longitudinal bore 66 of the spindle 55 and is then, with the aid of the rollers 4, guided to a directing device 6 which is also attached to the reeling arm 5. From the device 6 the wire passes to the reeling plate 3 on which it is wound several times.

Attached on the support plate 12 is a wire bending device, indicated generally at 14, through which the wire running off the reeling plate 3 is guided and by which it is laid in the form of the coiled wire bundle 61. A guide device'6;2 for the wire to be laid, is also attached to the support plate 12, i.e., it rotates therewith, and is formed by a U-shaped bent plate or sheet the side-pieces 63 of which are spaced apart by the distance between inner rods 64 and outer rods 65 of the wire reel 15. These rods are secured to the baseplate .66 of the reel which firmly stands on the baseplate 51 of the winding device. Two motors 8 and it of which at least the motor 19 is adjustable or coupled with an adjustable transmission gear, drive the plates 3 and 12 respectively. The motor 8 may be adjustable to adapt the winder to different 'inleed velocities .of the wire 58.

Rotatably mounted in ball hearings on the shaft 55 are the drive pinions 7 and 9 of a difierential or cornpensating gear, of which the differential pinions 11 or their supports '67 are firmly coupled to the shaft 55, i.e., the shaft 55 is turned only if the angular velocities of the driving pinions 7 and 9 are d-ifier'ent. The driving pinion 7 carries a chain sprocket 68 and is driven through a chain 69 by the motor 8 at a constant speed which is proportional to the inteed velocity of the wire 58-. The driving pinion 9 is connected to a chain sprocket 70 which is driven through a chain 71 from a sprocket 7 2. The sprocket 72 is fitted on a spindle 13 rotatably mounted in bearings 73 on the bridge 52. The spindle carries a V-belt pulley 74 which is driven through a belt 75 by the V-belt pulley 76 of the motor 19.

On its lower extremity, the spindle 13 carries a chain sprocket 77 and through a chain 78 drives a sprocket 79 firmly fixed to'the support plate 12, i.e., the plate 12 -is also driven by the spindle 13, but the transmission is so selected that the speed of revolution of the plate 12 amounts to half the speed of revolution of the driving pinion 9.

A regulating device indicated generally at 20 is fitted to the motor 10, by means of which the speed of revolution of the motor may be varied. In the present case, it is assumed that the motor is a three-phase commutator motor the brush assembly of which may be displaced by rneans of a spindle 80. It carries a chain sprocket 81 which is driven through a chain 82 by a sprocket 83 of the regulating device. In the drawing it is assumed that 84 is a motor for the drive of the sprocket $13 andthat the bending device 14 is also driven by a motor fitted on the support plate 12, and that both motors are combined with the aid of the commutator rings 18 into an electrical shaft, so that the displacement of the bending device and the adjustment of the speed of revolution of the motor 10 occur synchronously.

A roller 16 is rotatably mounted on the plate 12. This roller has a part of smaller diameter. It is in contact with the same against the outer edge of the flange rim 17 and is driven by the latter at the relative velocity of the plates 12 and 3. With the periphery of the larger part it is in contact with the periphery of the reeling plate 3 with the turns of wire wound thereon, i.e., the peripheral speed is always slightly greater than the infeed velocity of the Wire .53.- This roller preceding the bending device 4 14 in the direction of rotation serves the purpose of supporting the wire running off the plate 3 with respect to the bending device. Thus the force exerted on the wire in the bending device does not lead to lifting the wire off the reeling plate 3.

The construction of the bending device 14 is seen in FIGS. 2 and 3. As these show, all parts of the'bending device are mounted on a support 27 which is secured to the plate 12. Two rollers 23 and a roller 21, which are all rotatably mounted bend the wire. The roller 21 rotates about a pin 25 which is mounted in a fork-shaped lever 22 pivotable about a pin 22a. A coil spring (not shown) has one extremity fastened to the support 27 and the other to the pin 25, i.e. it holds the pin 25 in engagement on a cam plate 19 which is driven by a motor (not shown) through a transmission 26. The wire coming from the plate 3 runs between the rollers 23 and the bending roller 21. The position of this roller and thus also the radius of curvature of the wire 58 are determined by the cam plate 19, i.e. they vary during rotation of the cam plate 19. The cam plate is continually displaced according to the desired increase or decrease in the radius of curvature of the turn running 5. The position thus depends on the diameter of the wire and on the number of turns in the layer. A stop 24 is provided on the cam plate 19 simultaneously to turn on and off the drives of the cam plate 19 and the regulating device 29 of the motor 10.

Referring to FIGS. 4 to 6 the relevant parts shown in FIG. 1 are marked with the same references in FIG. ,4.

he entire gear is housed in a case 84 which replaces the bridge 52 of FIG. 1. The shaft 55 is again connected to the supports 67 of the ditferentialpinions 11. A gear.- wheel 42 is firmly coupledto the driving gear 7. The motor 8 is mounted on the case 84 and its driving spindle carries a gearwheel 85 meshing with the wheel 42. The driving pinion 9 of the differential gear carries a gearwheel 86 meshing with the gearwheel 87 on the spindle 13. This spindle is driven by the motor 10'throug-h bevel gears 88, S9. The spindle 13 also carries a gearwheel 9 9 driving a gearwheel 91 which is connected to the plate 12 to rotate therewith. The plate 12 is mounted rotatably in ball bearings 92 on the spindle 55. On its lower extremity, the spindle 55 carries the reeling plate 3 the flange rim 17 of which is on this construction at the bottom, i.e. the turns of wire are wound upwardly on the plate 3.

The adjustment device of the motor 10 comprises a cam plate 41 mounted on a spindle 93 which is driven through bevel gears 49, 39 by a gearwheel 38. On an annular projection 94 on the case 84, surrounding the spindle 55,

a gearwheel 35 is rotatably mounted and held by a gearwheel 34 which is screwed to the projection 94. The gearwheel 34 meshes with the gearwheel 38 and a gearwheel 37 which is rotatably mounted in the gearwheel 42, i.e. this gearwheel rotates with the gearwheel 42 and in doing so rolis along the gearwheel 35. The gears 34 and 35 and 37 and 38 differ but little in the number of teeth. The transmission is so selected that the transmission ratio amounts to 1:490, i.e. the spindle 93 and the cam plate 41 perform one revolution for 400 revolutions of the gearwheel 42.

The cam plate 19 is driven by a chain 95 and chain sprockets 32 and 33, the sprocket 32 itself by a planetary gear which is driven by the gearwheels 28 to 31. The gearwheel 26 is attached to a pin 96 of the plate 12, whereas the gearwheel 28 is freely mounted on the pin 96. The two gearwheels are slightly diiferent, i.e. the gearwheel 26 has 98 teeth and the gearwheel 28 has 100 teeth. They mesh simultaneously with the gearwheels 29 and 30 which are secured to a pin 97. The pin is seated in and rotates with the reeling plate 3. The gearwheels 29 and 3t) differ by one tooth, e.g. the gearwheel 29 has 5 6 teeth and the gearwheel 39 has 57 teeth. The gearwheel 28 then turns at very low constant speed relative to the plate 12, the ratio amounting to 98 57 2 1 100-56 l 2OO The gearwheel 31 attached on a pin on the plate 12 assumes the low speed of the gearwheel 28 and drives the chain sprocket 33 which is secured on the same spindle as the cam plate 19. Since the difierence between the angular velocities of the plates 3 and 12 is constant and the angular velocity of the plate v12 is translated in the ratio 2:1, the angular velocity of the cam plate 19 is exactly identical with that of the cam plate 41. Thus in practice a mechanical coupling of the two cam plates is obtained which would be difiicult to establish with other devices. The coupling is based on a specific number of turns per layer. It the radial height of the coiled wire bundle, or the diameter of the wire, were to change substantially, this can be allowed for by exchanging the gearwheels.

I claim:

1. A method of reeling coiled wire bundles in which the coils are each in a plane at right angles to the axis of the bundle and the coils are of continually changing radius alternately increasing and decreasing between maximum and minimum radii, said method comprising passing the wire to the bundle over a number of rollers in a bending device and continually varying the spacing between the rollers to vary the curvature in the wire coils as they are laid on the bundle, and rotating the bending device to lay the wire in coils in the non-rotating bundle.

2. A coiled wire bundling machine comprising a driven reeling plate, a separately driven support plate rotating coaxially with the reeling plate, a wire reeling arm carried by the support plate and rotated about said plate axis, an adjustable wire bending device secured to the support plate, a drive device operable continuously to adjust the bending device to vary continually the radius of curvature of the wire coil formed thereby, and a wire reel disposed to receive the coils of wire running oil the bending device.

3. A coiled wire bundling machine comprising a rotatable reeling plate, a rotatable support plate coaxial with the reeling plate, separate drives for each of said plates, means coupling said drives with the diflerence between their angular velocities multiplied by the reeling plate radius on the one hand and the angular velocity of the support plate multiplied by the instantaneous radius of the wire turn running 011 the reeling plate on the other hand both being always equal to the linear infeed speed of the Wire, a wire reeling arm carried by the support plate, an adjustable wire bending device carried by the support plate, a drive device operable continuously to adjust the bending device to produce wire turns of varying radius continuously increasing and decreasing between maximum and minimum radii, and means to vary the angular velocities of the reeling and support plates as a function of the setting of the bending device.

4. A machine according to claim 3 characterised in that said reeling plate is drivingly mounted on a driven spindle on which said support plate is rotatably mounted, said spindle is coupled to two driving pinions of a differential gear, the first of said pinions is rotatably mounted on said spindle and is driven by a motor at a speed equal to the linear speed of wire infeed, the second of said pinions is driven by a separate motor the speed of which is regulated to a speed which is a function of the radius of curvature of the wire coils laid, and said support plate is driven at an angular velocity equal to half the angular velocity of said second difierential pinion,

5. A machine according to claim 3 characterised by the provision of an electric motor forming the drive device for adjusting the bending device, a regulating device of said motor, and a mechanically driven cam plate operatively connected to said regulating device and actuated to adjust the bending device, said bending device having three rollers over which the wire passes in succession one of which rollers is adjusted by said cam device.

6. A machine according to claim 3 characterised by an electric motor forming the drive device for adjusting the bending device, a regulating device of said motor, and a mechanically driven cam plate operatively connected to said regulating device and actuated to adjust the bending device, said bending device having three rollers over which the wire passes in succession one of which rollers is adjusted by said cam device, said cam plate being rotatably mounted on said support plate and driven through a planetary gear train the sun wheels of which are rotatably mounted on said support plate and the planetary gears of which are rotatably mounted on the reeling plate.

7. A coiled wire bundling machine comprising a rotatable reeling plate, a rotatable support plate coaxial with the reeling plate, separate drives for each of said plates, means coupling said drives with the difference between their angular velocities multiplied by the reeling plate radius on the one hand and the angular velocity of the support plate multiplied by the instantaneous radius of the wire turn running oil the reeling plate on the other hand both being always equal to the linear infeed speed of the wire, a wire reeling arm carried by the support plate, an adjustable wire bending device carried by the support plate, a drive device operable continuously to adjust the bending device to produce wire turns of varying radius continuously increasing and decreasing between maximum and minimum radii, a contact pressure disc, engaging the turns of wire on the reeling plate, mounted on said support plate and frictionally driven by the reeling plate at a peripheral speed proportional to but slightly greater than the speed of the wire, and means to vary the angular velocities of the reeling and support plates as a function of the setting of the bending device.

8. A machine according to claim 7 characterised in that a wire directing device is disposed on the support plate and is interposed in the wire feed between the reeling arm and the reeling plate.

9. A machine according to claim 7 characterised in that the support plate motor speed is adjusted by a cam plate driven at a speed which is a function of the radius of curvature of the wire through a planetary gear train of which the sun wheels are stationarily mounted and the planetary gear wheels are mounted on a gearwheel driven at constant speed by the reeling plate drive motor.

References Cited by the Examiner UNZTED STATES PATENTS 32,395 5/1861 Young 72138 1,835,589 12/1931 Bond 72-170 1,843,240 2/1932 Owen 72-1 3 8 1,897,412 2/1933 Adams 72371 2,077,243 4/1937 Leal 72-138 2,145,081 1/1939 Gogan 72170 2,179,011 11/1939 Hudson 72-169 2,339,424 1/1944 Poole 72145 2,371,674 3/1945 Caminez 72371 3,145,760 8/1964 Brautigam 72-l38 CHARLES W, LANHAM, Primary Examiner.

\V. H. JUST, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A METHOD OF REELING COILED WIRE BUNDLES IN WHICH THE COILS ARE EACH IN A PLANE AT RIGHT ANGLES TO THE AXIS OF THE BUNDLE AND THE COILS ARE OF CONTINUALLY CHANGING RADIUS ALTERNATELY INCREASING AND DECREASING BETWEEN MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM RADII, SAID METHOD COMPRISING PASSING THE WIRE TO THE BUNDLE OVER A NUMBER OF ROLLERS IN A BENDING DEVICE AND CONTINUALLY VARYING THE SPACING BETWEEN THE ROLLERS TO VARY THE CURVATURE IN THE WIRE COILS AS THEY ARE LAID ON THE BUNDLE, AND ROTATING THE BENDING DEVICE TO LAY THE WIRE IN COILS IN THE NON-ROTATING BUNDLE. 